Physical modelling has provided many opportunities for validating theories proposed to describe processes and mechanisms in soil mechanics. Experiments have included 1g lab-floor tests as well as those carried out in pressure chambers, on shaking tables and in geotechnical centrifuges. In consequence, TC2 was one of the first ISSMGE TCs formed (1981) and has now boasted the 6th such specialty conference, held under its aegis.

The 6th International Conference in Physical Modelling in Geotechnics’ took place in August 2006 in Hong Kong at the HKUST under the leadership of TC2 core member and former Secretary Prof. Charles Ng.
320 participants from 31 member societies took part in the proceedings that lasted 3 days. These have been recorded within the printed and electronic proceedings [1]. 342 abstracts were submitted and, after a reviewing process, 229 papers were accepted together with 8 keynote and 1 state-of-the-art paper.

TC2 has set ambitious goals for the working groups (more details on http://www.tc2.civil.uwa.edu.au)

Data exchange and archiving: Paul Schaminée, Bruce Kutter, Paul van Laak, Christophe Gaudin
– To establish standards for saving, exchanging and archiving model test data, to allow easy viewing, manipulation and comparison of test data within the physical modelling community and users, to allow sharing of post-processing software within and between institutes based on data archived in a standard form.
– A standard format for storage and archiving model test data will be adopted, supported by a manual and appropriate software to facilitate to use of this standard – both storage and post-processing, which will be disseminated via the web.
– To work toward establishment and adoption of standards for saving, exchanging and archiving model test data, to allow easy viewing, manipulation and comparison of test data within the physical modeling community and users, to allow sharing of post- processing software within and between institutes based on data archived in a standard form.

Industry liaison: Christophe Gaudin, Ryan Phillips, Adam Bezuijen, Jacques Garnier, Jan Laue, Dave White
– To create and enhance industry-awareness of geotechnical physical modelling, to define standard procedures, levels of reporting and thresholds for data quality appropriate for model testing, to aid specification of testing.
– A short guide to physical modelling will be prepared to introduce potential industry users to the potential and track record of geotechnical physical modelling and circulated to a group of (potential) users in industry, linked by a loose ‘user group’.
– A set of guidelines and standards for specifying model test procedures and data quality will be published on the TC2 website.

Publications: Jiro Takemura, Andrew McNamara, Colin Leung, Osamu Kusakabe, Luc Thorel, Christophe Gaudin
– To maintain an up-to-date searchable database of literature related to physical modelling (building on the existing Cleopatre database held at LCPC), as well as a searchable web-based database of geotechnical physical modelling publications.
– To continue to support the International Journal of Physical Modelling in Geotechnics.